While the best steak in Dallas, Texas, might be fighting words, I’ll stand by them. I knew this was going to be the case while walking up to Brandon Roy’s patio, seeing a deep bed of hot coals glowing in his custom parilla. “You have to respect first contact,” he later says about grilling steaks perfectly. But way more goes into it. See, for Brandon Roy, the entire process of grilling and smoking meats is a labor of love. And it shows.

 

Related Links:

b.roys_bbq


Hide Article

 

Meat Porn of Epic Proportions

And the man really cooks the best steak in Dallas, Texas, as a labor of his love. 

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to Duck Season Somewhere, where I just finished the best steak in Dallas, Texas. Some of you all listening may say, that’s fighting words and I say, prove me wrong. Been at Dallas Safari Club a day, standing on my feet all day and come over here to my buddy Brandon Roy, who really doesn’t live but about a half hour from the convention center. Beautiful little neighborhood. And, I walk on the back porch. Could you kind of come in through the back there? And I walk on the back porch. And on his patio is a parrilla. I don’t know what that is. You all fixing to find out. Brandon?

Brandon Roy: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Holy shit. Was that amazing? Man, my wife cleaned her plate. She doesn’t do that with my cooking. I hate to say it. That was good. That was fine.

Brandon Roy: Man, welcome to my home, Ramsey. Welcome to my outdoor kitchen. So nice to have you and honored to get invited to do your podcast.

Ramsey Russell: We talk about all this Instagram and all this social media podcast, not podcast, algorithm. And there’s so much to be bad said about metadata. But man, I love my algorithm. I’m going to tell you right now, I love my matrix because it brings me into the right fold and I literally enjoy the best steak in Dallas, Texas. And man, I mean, that’s coming in a state, let alone a city that prides themselves on beef steaks.

Brandon Roy: We love our beef in Texas. And let me tell you something, Dallas is not short of the number of steakhouses we have. And I know, I mean, I pride myself in cooking a pretty good steak. What I will tell you that distinguishes me is maybe I cook it over live fire on a parrilla.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: And that’s not something you’re going to find here at most Dallas restaurants.

Ramsey Russell: No.

Brandon Roy: They’re going to be cooking it in a 16000 broiler, which is great. I mean, I love a good crust on a steak. But let me tell you something, I can get a really good crust on a steak cooking on a parrilla over oak coals. And I learned to do that when I went to Argentina. And basically, that trip changed my life and changed the way I cook.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me about that trip because you told me a lot while you were in between my steak tutoring lessons over the parrilla back here.

Brandon Roy: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: There’s so many levels of what went into that steak and what goes into your cooking that my wife is sitting there saying, we need to take notes on this stuff right here well.

Brandon Roy: Well.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me about your trip to Argentina.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Let’s start there because not everybody you walk into, that’s got a parrilla with a wheel that goes up and down over live coals and all this good stuff you got.

Brandon Roy: I went to Argentina back in 2014 on a guy’s trip and we were able to rent a really nice house in, I believe, Palermo Soho. It was the neighborhood, one of the popular neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. And we stayed down there for about 10 days and we ate at some of the really nice parrillas.

Ramsey Russell: Wait a minute, so this wasn’t a hunting trip?

Brandon Roy: Was not a hunting trip. Believe it or not.

Ramsey Russell: You went to Argentina earlier. I just assumed you went hunting.

Brandon Roy: No, unfortunately I didn’t, man.

Ramsey Russell: It was just a vacation. Okay, please continue.

Brandon Roy: So.

Ramsey Russell: I feel better.

Brandon Roy: Went down there with some boys and we had a good time, and we ate red meat every night, we drank a bunch of malbecs every night. And a few nights of the week, we stayed at this awesome house that had a really amazing parrilla. And I decided, you know what? We don’t have to go out every night. I’m going to learn how to cook on this damn thing. And I did it a couple of times. Learned and after that, I started really researching, I spent so much time on YouTube and trying to research every Argentinian type cook video that also, Brazil does a similar type of cooking.

Ramsey Russell: They do.

Brandon Roy: The South Americans, they love to cook over open fire and burn down real wood into coals.

Ramsey Russell: Absolutely.

Brandon Roy: Which is the difference and make a really good steak. They love their red meat down there, just like Texans do.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: So I decided, I was like, you know what? What the hell? Why can’t I bring a slice of Argentina back to Dallas, Texas? And that’s what I’ve been trying to do for the last several years. Now let me tell you something. The next time that I go to Argentina, we’re going to mix in a little bit of city and a little bit of parrilla. But we’re also going to mix in some duck hunting, too. And that’s where you come in.

Ramsey Russell: Come on, baby.

Brandon Roy: You know?

Ramsey Russell: You asked me just a minute ago what I thought of Buenos Aires and I’m not a city guy.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I live in a small town, 15,000 people.

Brandon Roy: Mississippi boy.

Ramsey Russell: Mississippi boy but I love Buenos Aires. I love freelancing around Buenos Aires. I love staying in my buddy’s apartment and hoofing at 15 or 20 miles. And I eat at some favorite restaurants. And over the years, 20 years, I found some ones that I just like.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

The Cooking & Hunting Charms of Buenos Aires

I don’t know how I came across you, but it was love at first sight, man. And it ain’t just steak. 

Ramsey Russell: One of my favorite went out of business. It was kind of a tourist trap, but I liked it because I liked the people and I liked the fact that they always designated somebody that spoke English and they cooked a main beef a de Lomo and it was just right. And they cooked the way I like it and they went out of business during COVID. COVID was not kind to Argentina. And I’ve got some other favorites, but what I like about that fast, 15 million plus people city is every little block and then every little district and every little neighborhood has got a hub of restaurants. It’s almost got its own local economy, starting with the restaurants and all the shops. And I love just walking along and stopping and looking and going, I think, I’m going to try this tomorrow night. And bouncing in and going, wow, that’s great. I just like, it’s a one of a kind standalone restaurant that a family operates and I love, but it’s all the same. It’s meat.

Brandon Roy: Well.

Ramsey Russell: And I like meat and salad.

Brandon Roy: It is meat. But let me tell you something. Each of those unique neighborhoods, they put their own spin on that cuisine.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Brandon Roy: You know what I mean? So every little neighborhood you visit, you’re going to get a different tweak on that cuisine.

Ramsey Russell: I started off talking about the matrix and I follow you on Instagram. I don’t know how I came across you, but it was love at first sight, man. And it ain’t just steak.

Brandon Roy: No.

Ramsey Russell: You cook steak, you cook beef, you cook every – I’ve seen you cook some other things, white meats. But you cook a lot of outdoor kitchen type stuff beyond the parrilla.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And one of the first questions I asked you while you were showing me our steaks, we’re going to talk about in a minute is, how many grills do you have?

Brandon Roy: Well, if you ask my wife, she would tell you, you need to take that number and subtract it by 3 or 4. But I would say that I have 4 to 5 in the rotation.

Ramsey Russell: In the rotation?

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: How many?

Brandon Roy: How many do I own. I mean, how many pairs of shoes do you have in your closet, Ramsey?

Ramsey Russell: My wife asked me one time how many, I got a bunch of duck calls lately. How many do you need? I said, all of them.

Brandon Roy: Exactly.

Ramsey Russell: I need all of them baby.

Brandon Roy: You never know when you’re going to cook something that requires that grill that hadn’t seen fire in 6 months. You know what I mean?

Ramsey Russell: Exactly. It’s been just sitting there latent, but getting that magic going.

Brandon Roy: It’s just like that dog, that’s at an outfitter that doesn’t get to work every day.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: But it’s like, oh, pick me today.

Ramsey Russell: This is my time today.

Brandon Roy: Pick me today. Please, I want to get wet. You know what I mean? It’s the same damn thing.

Ramsey Russell: All right, walk me through the grills that are currently in the playing lineup schedule and line me up on the bench warmers. What all have you got laying around here?

Brandon Roy: All right, well.

Ramsey Russell: I see this parrilla, we got to talk about the parrilla, custom build.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I mean, the parrilla is obviously, I took that back from Argentina and I had a company out of California build that one for me and I cook on that one quite a bit. I would say that’s my entertaining –

Ramsey Russell: Go to.

Brandon Roy: So like you guys came over tonight. That’s obviously a show piece and you want to show off your stuff, right, when you have guests. And so I cook on that one. I also have a portable grill that you can take hunting. It’s kind of like a suitcase grill and that one does really well. I’ve got a tripod type barrel.

Ramsey Russell: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you saying if I do invite you to come hunt, you’re going to bring a suitcase grill and cook something like this?

Brandon Roy: Absolutely. We’re not talking about, like, a little Coleman stove here, Ramsey, to where I’m frying bacon. I mean, I can actually bring a grill and cook up whatever you want on that thing in the duck blind.

Ramsey Russell: Third in the lineup.

Brandon Roy: You tell me. So the next one is kind of like, it’s a barrel. It sits on a tripod.

Ramsey Russell: Birch barrel.

Brandon Roy: A birch barrel, exactly right.

Ramsey Russell: That’s live coals, too, isn’t it?

Brandon Roy: Absolutely. So, these guys are out of Bozeman, Montana.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Flavor vs Convenience: The Art of the BBQ

But where you sacrifice with those is with flavor and smoke.

Brandon Roy: I’ve been working with them for quite a bit and I love cooking on that thing. Let me tell you something. What I love cooking on it, direct heat chicken. Because you can put those coals way down low and you can cook that direct heat. With that direct heat and you can cook the chicken and it gets that skin super crispy, but it doesn’t burn and it is just, it’s amazing. And then, of course, I’ve got my offset, my Moberg smoker, which is made in Austin, Texas. Sunny Moberg is a great friend of mine and he supplies most of the top 50 in the state of Texas, in terms of, like, Texas monthly barbecue.

Ramsey Russell: Real pit barbecue.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, this is a real deal offset. A lot of times I do a Texas style brisket. I’ll do Texas ribs, beef and pork. Typically, when I want to smoke something, that’s my go to grill or smoker, if you will and then a couple of others, I have kind of sitting off in the garage that only come out on special occasions. And one is a PK. It’s the original PK, which I love. It was really my first kind of grill/smoker. And let me tell you something about the PK. They’re out of Arkansas.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: They’ve been around since the 1940s. Okay.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. Is that a briquette grill?

Brandon Roy: Well, I mean.

Ramsey Russell: Do you ever use charcoal briquettes?

Brandon Roy: I use lump charcoal briquettes.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. Yeah, okay.

Brandon Roy: Like, no fillers, because you got to have that natural lump.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Brandon Roy: Because it just burns clean. There’s not a lot of cleanup that goes into it. It doesn’t produce a lot of ash and it typically burns hotter. And so that’s why I like cooking with lump. Whenever I do decide to use charcoal and then there’s another one, It’s a Dallas based company. They’re called M Grills. And I really love this grill because it also can be used as a smoker. What you’ll notice, Ramsey, is every one of my grills is a live fire grill. I don’t own anything that you can either plug into an outlet or that you can fire up with propane.

Ramsey Russell: No pellet smokers.

Brandon Roy: None of that. I mean, look, they are good for a lot of people. They serve their purpose. A lot of people call them the Easy Bake Oven and all that stuff.

Ramsey Russell: They are, But for me, it’s perfect.

Brandon Roy: Well, listen, they are so convenient. But where you sacrifice with those is with flavor and smoke. You don’t get the flavor, but you get the convenience, if you want the flavor. It’s a labor of love with the offset, in my opinion. All right. If you want the convenience to where you can sleep all night, you put your brisket on a pellet and set it and forget it. And let me tell you something. I’ve got people that reach out to me and that’s all they have is a pellet smoker. And I will give them the same type of advice as I would give someone that cooks on an offset. I don’t discriminate, like, what I love about people reaching out and asking for advice is that people are getting out to barbecue regardless of what you know, the tool is that they’re using to cook the food. And that’s what I’m all about. I want to get more people out to barbecue and kind of pay it forward because no one really paid it forward for me.

Ramsey Russell: Well, you were saying at dinner, live coal is pretty damn unrepresented in the cooking culture in the American scene. And I agree. It’s like, I don’t cook over live fire hardly ever, if ever.

Brandon Roy: Well.

Ramsey Russell: Close thing I come to live fire is lump charcoal.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, well. Lump charcoal is a great place to start live fire with. There’s nothing wrong with starting your live fire with a half chimney of lump charcoal. But some of the best pitmasters in America, they cook over coals that are burned down from wood. They call them burn pots. They’ll get a 55 gallon oil type barrel. They’ll cut a hole out of the bottom of it and they’ll stack it up with a bunch of wood, light it on fire and as that wood combusts, it turns into embers and it turns into coals. What they do is they’ll get the coals out of the bottom of it with a shovel and they’ll put them in their cooker. And you see that a lot in your neck of the woods, like with whole hog cooking. They cook over coals that are originally burned down from sticks of wood.

Brandon Roy: You’re not from Texas. The best steak I’ve eaten in Dallas, Texas, was not cooked by Texan.

Brandon Roy: Well, I mean, you can call me a Texan now because I’ve been here most of my life. But I mean, I was born and raised in Louisiana, in a Boyce Parish and –

Ramsey Russell: Tell me about your daddy?

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Who was born and raised in a Boyce Parish.

Louisiana’s Food Culture

It’s a food culture because it’s a people culture.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. So my dad, he was born in Mansura, Louisiana. My grandfather worked as a state trooper in Louisiana and my dad, he was in the natural gas business and an avid duck hunter. Let me tell you something. My dad and my uncle, very close, my uncle still lives in Mansura. They would go hunting every weekend out of a boat blind. They’d brush the blind. There were 3 holes to shoot out of, they took me at an early age. I mean, let me tell you something, I was so young, the ducks would be coming in. My dad would say, okay, get ready. It’s almost time to pull the trigger. And what would I do? I would cover my ears because, I didn’t want my ears to ring. And so, that’s kind of where it started from me, being a Cajun, growing up in a Boyce Parish, I’ve always been around food. I’ve always been around really good people.

Ramsey Russell: Louisiana is a food culture.

Brandon Roy: Let me tell you something.

Ramsey Russell: That defines Louisiana to me more than any other aspect. It’s the food. It’s a food culture because it’s a people culture.

Brandon Roy: And the food is what brings the people together.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Brandon Roy: That’s what it is. The food is what creates community.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: And if you look at some of the best and brightest festivals in the United States, they’re in Louisiana. Look at the jazz fest in New Orleans. Right? Look at some of these festivals in Lafayette, Louisiana, which is where I spent a lot of my time. I love Lafayette, Louisiana.

Ramsey Russell: Mardi Gras.

Brandon Roy: I mean, Mardi Gras, if that’s your cup of tea.

Ramsey Russell: You got Mardi Gras in New Orleans, you got Mardi Gras small town community, too.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. I mean, they celebrate. There’s the thing, Mardi Gras in Louisiana, these kids get off of school for Mardi Gras.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah of course.

Brandon Roy: Like a whole week. Not just like the day of, I mean, they get off like the whole week. And so it’s a massive thing. I mean, hey, you like king cake, don’t you?

Ramsey Russell: Of course.

Brandon Roy: I mean, have you ever gotten a slice with the baby in it? You know what that means? So when you get a slice with the baby in it, it means that you have to buy the next king cake. Yeah, you got to supply the next one. But like, just the colors of the king cake, the purple and the gold and the green and just that icing, it is so delicious. How we’re talking about king cake right now, I have no idea how we got on this.

Ramsey Russell: Because it’s time for dessert.

Brandon Roy: You get me talking about Louisiana. We start talking about food.

Ramsey Russell: Every time.

Brandon Roy: That is just quintessential to Louisiana.

Ramsey Russell: Born and raised in Boyce Parish. What brought you to Texas and when?

Brandon Roy: So, as I mentioned earlier, my dad was in the natural gas business and I went to grade school in Louisiana. I went to middle school in Louisiana. And then basically in 8th grade, I was 13 years old. We moved to Kentucky for about 9 months and then we moved to Dallas in 8th grade and I went to high school here. I join once a graduated from high school, I went back to Louisiana. I spent a year at LSU, which was like, were some of the best days.

Ramsey Russell: Of course.

Brandon Roy: Of my life. Did not finish at LSU. Okay. Didn’t finish there. Came back to Dallas with my tail between my legs and then I went out to Texas Tech.

Ramsey Russell: There’s a time and a place for everything. It’s called college, but go ahead.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. Went back to another part of university in Texas Tech, out in Lubbock, Texas and actually got serious. My parents made me sign a contract. I graduated, I got a finance degree. Look, it’s those experiences that just make you as a person.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: And then after I graduated from there, I moved back to Dallas and I’ve been here ever since.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a great city.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Big city, but a good city.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I mean. Let me tell you something. I love Dallas, but I also like getting away from the concrete.

Ramsey Russell: Of course.

Brandon Roy: I love going out in the country I love going to duck hunt. I love just seeing trees and like I said, getting away from the concrete. I love it.

Ramsey Russell: When did the meat cooking come into play? You’re a self taught, quote, chef and to me it makes a big difference. There’s no culinary arts. Cool here. This is Brandon Roy cooking with a collection of grills on the sidelines and grills in the lineup and grills probably hidden from you off.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. well, let me tell you something real quick about that. She won’t let me bring a new one in until I get rid of one.

Ramsey Russell: Call me when you get rid of one. I’ll drive down here. Get one.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I need more in my life.

Brandon Roy: You put a lot of miles in that truck.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. And no miles of spare coming to pick it up. Because here’s the deal. I’m sitting here on your patio, the coals are smoldering. You go in, I don’t know, get the stage, get something. My wife looked right and for the first time, that woman’s like, she goes, I would move or something like set up like here. Am I like, what? She raised her kids in the house we live in and she ain’t never said nothing about moving till she saw this patio with that live fire grill. I could see having that. It was epiphany I’m like, okay, that’s moat. I’ll drive down here to pick up a new grill. That’s what it takes.

Brandon Roy: All right, so you got me distracted. I’m trying to remember the question you asked me.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t remember either.

Brandon Roy: My goodness.

Ramsey Russell: What got you into meat?

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Where did the meat cooking start?

Brandon Roy: Good question. So when I went to tech, I started, I don’t know, beef. Beef is all about Texas, right? Texas is all about beef. And there was a store right down the street and they had steaks and they weren’t great steaks, but they were you know for a college kid.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

The Joy of Cooking: Waterfowl & Other Meats

Brandon Roy: A steak is a steak. You know what I am saying, these I would go in there and I would buy, like, $4, $5, $6 steaks and my roommates would be like, hey, Brandon, pick me up one. I will buy your steak if you cook it for me. And so to me, that was kind of like the defining moment. Like, you asked me that question. That was kind of when I realized that, hey, I could cook a steak. And from that moment forward, I started to like, really get into it and discover all types of proteins. And that’s the thing. I don’t just cook meat like, I cook seafood, I cook global cuisine.

Ramsey Russell: And you remember too.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I don’t just do meat. I like cooking, period. And whether it’s Southern, whether it’s Cajun, whether it’s Texas barbecue, whether it’s South American, Argentinian or Brazilian type meats, I cook it all and I just love to cook. And my whole mission is to get more people cooking.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: And whether that’s over live fire or standing or a person that lives in an apartment in a big city, like I just want them to get out and cook more.

Ramsey Russell: I would bet a handle of my favorite bourbon.

Brandon Roy: Okay.

Ramsey Russell: That every single person listening to this episode cooks steak. Every one of them.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

How to Cook a Damn Good Steak

Well, it starts with the cut. It starts with the quality of the meat, too.

Ramsey Russell: And probably cooked a pretty damn good steak. But I want to talk about your steak. We walk in and you got 4 beautiful steaks laid out. Tell me about the steaks and then tell me about how you prepared them, because how you prepared them was so perfectly simple. But it starts with the cut.

Brandon Roy: Well, it starts with the cut. It starts with the quality of the meat, too. So let’s see you guys got here. I had a boneless prime fillet of the probably about 7oz that I had set out for your wife. I had a bone in fillet mignon prime. It was 14oz with the bone. And that one I reserved for you, my friend.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you.

Brandon Roy: You’re welcome.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve never even heard of a bone in fillet, never.

Brandon Roy: It’s obviously, like my favorite steak to order when I go out. It’s so tender, but that bone makes it so flavorful. And it’s, in my opinion, the best of both worlds. And then the other 2 steaks I had was, I had a really nice New York strip, which I’m not a huge fan of New York strip, to be honest. But this one was so well marbled.

Ramsey Russell: That’s just it. I’m not a fan of New York strip either. Until I looked at yours. I’m like, what are those wagyu? They had so much marbling in them. They look like a ribeye.

Brandon Roy: This thing looked like an A5. It wasn’t even like a wagyu. Like, it looked like an A5 because it was that well marbled. So I decided, you know what? Let’s take a shot on it. So I did. It’s a really nice 2 inch thick steak, probably a little over a pound. I cut it in half. I trust it like I would a filet. So I trust all of them except yours because it had the bone. And then in terms of preparation, the only thing I did was give them all a good dry brine to where some really good sea salt, put it on the steak, put it in the fridge for 24 hours. And what that does is it extracts the moisture, but then eventually all of that will melt back into the steak to make it more tender, more juicy. And so when it came time to actually cooking the steaks, I got my parrilla fired up when you guys got here at 6:30, what time do you think I started that fire?

Ramsey Russell: 6:15.

Brandon Roy: Are you kidding me?

Ramsey Russell: I don’t know.

Brandon Roy: I had 4 inches deep of oak coals. So do you want to guess again? That was a 2 and a half hour fire when you. 2 and a half hours. And that’s how they do it down in South America. When they start service. They start those fires at 3:00.

Ramsey Russell: We pull up about 10:00 or 11:00 some of these lodges. And my favorite site, when I pull up to the front of that lodge, Ria Salado, for example, you can see the grill, you can see the parrilla is there, the fire going. I’m like, here we go, boys.

Brandon Roy: That’s right. There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing like it. Anyways, so back to the steaks. So, I pull them out about an hour before you guys got here, bring them up to room temperature and then I happened to smoke a brisket last week, so I made my own tallow. So I took some tallow and I put them on all the steaks. Just a little bit of tallow. And then I seasoned them with some coarse salt. Just a little bit, because obviously they had already been seasoned with salt the day before. But salt, pepper, garlic, that’s it.

Ramsey Russell: That’s it.

Brandon Roy: That’s it. No fancy rub, nothing out of the bottle. I mean, nothing fancy. A good piece of meat doesn’t need a lot of seasoning. All it needs is fire, a little bit of smoke and the right way to cook it. And that’s it. You don’t need a steak sauce when you’re eating it. You don’t need anything.

Ramsey Russell: The rendered beef tallow that you had seasoned, that was a deal.

Brandon Roy: Do you like that?

Ramsey Russell: Oh, boy.

Brandon Roy: Well, so the other thing and I’m glad you pointed this out, but the thing with that parrilla is it’s got those V grates, those really wide V grates, right? And so as it cooks and as that fat renders, it renders into those grooves, which then gets collected into the collection area, which then you can take a brush and you can baste those steaks with their own juices. And that’s what I did and that’s what took them over the top, is basting them in their own juices.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me what you said when you laid them steaks down on those hot coals. I would say I held my hand over the grill when you laid it. When you laid them down, I’m going to say it was medium, about a 3 count live cold, big deep, glowing bed. But you said something about the surface or you laid them down and you let it do the work. What was that about? It wasn’t no timer when you’re going to flip them or nothing. It was something else, the way you got that bark on that steak.

Brandon Roy: Here’s what, I’m a big proponent of – when I went to Argentina, then I learned about Francis Mallmann, who is like the disciple of Argentinian live fire cooking. I learned so much about him and I learned about his techniques and I really studied the guy very hard and I consider myself a disciple of him. And so one of his big things is you have to respect, the first contact. That’s what he said.

Ramsey Russell: That was the word you used first.

Brandon Roy: First contact, so you get your grill, the temperature you like it, right. It doesn’t have to be ripping hot. It can be medium. You put your steak on it, make sure it has good contact. You don’t have to press it down very hard. And you leave it alone. You let it do its thing. You let the grill do the work. And I mean, we didn’t touch those steaks for a good 10 to 12 minutes. We just let the grill do the work. And once you establish that initial crust, then you can flip it and you can finish it.

Ramsey Russell: How did you know from looking at it had that crust you wanted?

It All Comes Down to Experience

It really comes down to knowing your fire, knowing how much heat you have, knowing what your grill is, knowing being familiar with the protein you’re cooking, how thick it is.

Brandon Roy: It’s a great question, but it really comes down to experience.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Ramsey Russell: Just like when you’re in a duck blind, you know what kind of bird is flying at you and the direction they’re flying, how much you have to lead it, right? Or how little you have to lead it, depending on the type of shot you’re presented. It’s the same type deal. It really comes down to knowing your fire, knowing how much heat you have, knowing what your grill is, knowing being familiar with the protein you’re cooking, how thick it is. And it’s a lot of trial and error, to be honest. And like I told you earlier.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about somebody’s trial. You were telling me earlier.

Brandon Roy: Well, let me tell you something. I told you this earlier, but trial and error is super key. I get people that reach out to me all the time saying they want to take up smoking meat and the first thing they want to cook is a brisket. And I’m like.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, boy.

Brandon Roy: What are you doing, like that is the most temperamental piece of meat. I’m like, look, don’t start with that. You’ve got to start with like I tell them, a pork shoulder, because you really can’t mess up a pork shoulder. You can’t over season it. It’s such a big, dense piece of meat. You can’t over season it. If you cook it to like a certain degrees, you’re not going to dry the thing out. It’s a pork shoulder.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Brandon Roy: So my trial and error, I used to think this is how dumb I was, back in my early 20s. I was gifted an offset smoker and I was very fortunate to have gotten that gift. And I started doing brisket in my early 20s. And I thought, I was burning a clean fire. I mean, no smoke coming out of the stack. I mean, it was blue smoke. You hear about blue smoke? I was burning that, but honestly, because it was so clean, I didn’t think the meat was getting any smoke on it. Damn, was I wrong? So what would I do? I’d put more wood in the firebox to where the smoke was smoldering and I was getting this nasty smoke coming out. And I thought by putting that type of smoke on the meat, I was actually smoking correctly, which I was not. I was doing the last thing you want to do. And so early on, when I served those briskets, I’m embarrassed to this day because I used to burp up smoke. Let me tell you something.

Ramsey Russell: Burp up smoke rings.

Brandon Roy: If you burp up smoke, after you’d barbecue, if you burp up smoke anytime in the next 24 hours after you eat it, okay, that means there was some dirty smoke put on that meat, all right. You should not be burping up dirty smoke. Smoke, if you do it the right way, it really is just an added seasoning to the meat. And it’s very faint and it just adds that next level of flavor. But it’s very refined and that’s what you want. Like, when you smoke something the right way and all these different woods produce different types of smoke for the palate, but when you use smoke in the right way, it is such a flavor enhancer, like it’s out of this world.

Ramsey Russell: That is one thing you said tonight at dinner. Smoke is just another seasoning.

Brandon Roy: That’s all it is.

Ramsey Russell: Too much overpowering or dirty or whatever. It’s just another seasoning.

Brandon Roy: That’s all it is.

Ramsey Russell: Like the steak tonight.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Had a smoky flavor, but it wasn’t overpowering. I tasted the meat. That choice cut of meat, I could taste. It had a smoky flavor but it wasn’t overpowering.

Brandon Roy: You probably just got like a little hint of smoke.

Ramsey Russell: Perfect. It was a perfect hint.

Brandon Roy: But I mean, it’s like, you know it’s there.

Ramsey Russell: Oh yeah.

Brandon Roy: But it’s not like knocking on the door. It’s barely knocking.

Ramsey Russell: You got this parrilla, that inspired you from a guy’s trip down in Buenos Aires and I asked you the question right off the bat. I know you cook all kinds of cuts of meat, brisket and ribs and all kinds of stuff. I fought you on Instagram, but I hadn’t seen you cook a lot of twitch muscle or a lot of these cuts of meat from Argentina. But you do, that’s one thing I’ve had these conversations before on this podcast. We in America are kind of spoiled. We eat these choice cuts of meat. We eat steak. We eat hamburger down there, man. They eat every part of the cow but the meat and it’s all delicious. And you’re able to find those cuts of meat around here.

Brandon Roy: If you know what to ask for. The butchers, sometimes they’ll get in their beef or whatever and they will process it a certain way, which is what is appealing to the American consumer. But if you know what to look for, for example, the costilla’s, like the big beef ribs, to where it’s not just the plate, the 3 bone plate of ribs. It’s like, the whole rack of one side of the cow, which is like 15 ribs in it, weighs a good, I don’t know, 8, I don’t know how many pounds. But anyways, if you know what to ask for, there are certain places in Dallas or really wherever you live that will do that, as long as you know what you’re looking for. So that’s one really good cut. Another one that I really like is called the vacio and it’s basically an extended version of our what we know as the flank steak.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. It’s plenty of fat on it.

Brandon Roy: Exactly. They leave the fat on it, they leave the silver skin on it, it’s much thicker than our typical flank steak. And it’s this big massive triangle because it’s kind of like the whole side skirt off of the rib cage. And it’s just massive, it’s about as big as this coffee table right here almost. And you grill that thing and you cut it up and it is so flavorful and so delicious. And, yeah, I have experimented with that, but I really didn’t learn about those cuts without doing all the research that I did.
Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Do you have a seasonal cooking schedule or do your grills get a typical seasonal play? Do you cook pork barbecue ribs in the summertime or do you cook all the meats equally throughout the year? Do you use your grills equally throughout the year or do you have, like, a seasonal schedule?

Brandon Roy: That’s a great question. I wouldn’t say that my cooking is very seasonal with the exception of when it’s crawfish season. Going back to my Louisiana roots, when it’s crawfish season, I boil the hell out of some crawfish.

Ramsey Russell: I’m with you on that, buddy.

Brandon Roy: Because there aren’t many things in life that I crave, but I do crave some damn –

Ramsey Russell: I do, too.

Brandon Roy: Boiled crawfish. In my opinion, there is nothing like it. And I love crawfish season, which is crawfish season now. It’s early season, but I’m ready to boil at any time. And I love doing that.

Ramsey Russell: Crawfish are coming home. You’re right, it’s almost crawfish season. Sure is. I was going to ask you about a steak, I learned. One of the most important things I learned tonight about steak. I told you how I pick a ribeye. I don’t go to the cheap counter at Kroger. And the truth of the matter is, I don’t eat steak a lot. I don’t eat steak so much that I have to buy cheap steak.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I’ll eat steak once a year, if that’s what it takes. I want a good steak, but when I pick a ribeye, I look, all things equal, I want the big skinny piece. The bigger, the better. That’s what I want. That’s the ribeye I’m getting. I look at 8 of them laid out on the hand-cut counter. I want that right there. I got the biggest skinny piece.

Brandon Roy: What’s the skinny piece?

Ramsey Russell: I can’t remember what you told me. I’m not good at words. That’s why I’m leading you into it. Come on, man.

Brandon Roy: I hear you. So what you’re talking about is a –

Ramsey Russell: Lucky I got your name right.

Brandon Roy: The Spinalis.

Ramsey Russell: Spinalis.

Brandon Roy: And that is the most flavorful and tender part of the cow.

Ramsey Russell: Absolutely, it is.

Brandon Roy: When you look at a ribeye, it kind of looks like, on a part of the ribeye, where there’s just a small portion of it, it looks like an eyelid, basically, it wraps around the top and down to the side a little bit. But the thing is this is when you go to the butcher to get them to cut you some steaks, the spinalis is most pronounced on the chuck end of the roast.

Ramsey Russell: Bigger on the chip

Brandon Roy: It’s much bigger, basically, on that chuck end, that first part of the rib roast. But on the chuck end side, it’s about half of the steak is that spinalis and the other half of it, the lower portion of it, is the eye of the ribeye, okay. And as you get down further on the roast, on the rib roast, that spinalis tapers down just like a beef tenderloin does. So you’ve got that big beef tenderloin, whether it’s beef or whether it’s deer or whatever, that tenderloin is going to taper down, the further down it goes towards the rear of the animal. Same thing with the spinalis, which starts at the chuck, which is just beyond the first shoulder and it goes down to the rib. And if you know what to ask from the butcher and you say, hey, look, I want 2 rib eyes, but I want them cut from the chuck end. They’ll do it for you. Like, don’t go and think that your only selection is what’s sitting in the case.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Brandon Roy: That’s what they’re there for. And trust me, they would much prefer to cut you a fresh steak. And if you have to ask them to go get something from the back, that’s what they’re there for.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Brandon Roy: If you’re a butcher, if you’re just serving stuff out of the case all day, how boring is that?

Ramsey Russell: I know.

Favorite Duck to Shoot? Favorite Meat to Cook?

Brandon Roy: You know what I mean? Okay, let’s take this one out of the case. Let’s weigh it, let’s wrap it, let’s price it, whatever and let’s give it to the customer. Or you got somebody like Ramsey that comes in that wants spinalis, you’re like, hey, man, can you cut me 2 prime steaks off of that chuck end, 2 inches thick, I’m going big tonight. And, I’ve been known to take seasonings to those butchers. I’ve been known to give them a little of this and then, hey, trust me, they know, like, when I show up, they know and they are falling over themselves to help me.

Ramsey Russell: What’s your favorite cut of meat to cook?

Brandon Roy: Man, that’s kind of like me asking you, what’s your favorite duck to shoot?

Ramsey Russell: I know.

Brandon Roy: You know what I mean?

Ramsey Russell: I know, but it’s all got its art. I would have guessed maybe you would pride yourself most in brisket because that is a very challenging cut. That’s the cut to perfect. I haven’t perfected it yet. That’s a very tough cut of meat to cook.

Brandon Roy: Brisket is –

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Brandon Roy: Very difficult. But if you ask most pitmasters, they will tell you that the pork steak is the most difficult to cook. You know what a pork steak is?

Ramsey Russell: A pork chop, I guess.

Brandon Roy: No. It’s basically a 2 inch thick steak cut from the pork shoulder. Okay. And it is unbelievably flavorful, but it is very difficult to cook because you can easily overshoot it and you can also undershoot it. And it’s got a very fine line. For me, though. Yeah, brisket is definitely up there because it’s like the epitome of all barbecue, especially Texas barbecue.

Ramsey Russell: And I saw one time or read one time. Brisket used to be a hamburger cut. It wasn’t a choice cut, but in Texas, it became a choice cut. And now it’s become a source of pride.

Brandon Roy: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: And I love brisket. It’s got flavor. If you do it right and I don’t quite yet. It’s very tender. It’s got that good bark. Everything you want in a chunk of meat is a good brisket.

Brandon Roy: So, funny you say that because, I used to not even like brisket and then I learned how to properly cook it and then I came around on it. Because all those things you just mentioned about it, when you do it properly.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Brandon Roy: It’s an amazing bite. It hits all of the notes.

Ramsey Russell: Brisket is art, to me good brisket is art.

Brandon Roy: Because it takes time. You can’t.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a labor of love.

Brandon Roy: You cannot cook a good brisket in a couple of hours. You just can’t do it.

Ramsey Russell: No.

Brandon Roy: It’s not possible. I mean, can you cook an amazing steak in less than an hour? Absolutely, you can. But a tough cut, like a brisket that you have to really render the fat can’t be done in 2 hours. I don’t care who you are.

Ramsey Russell: Well, again, my wife and I decided all that fat we’ve been trimming off our brisket and throwing in a waste basket that’s fixing to go on the smoker and get rendered down into beef tallow.

Brandon Roy: Come on, man.

Ramsey Russell: Man, I’m telling you, you taught us something tonight. That was religion.

Brandon Roy: I didn’t teach you guys anything. I mean, people taking trimmings from brisket and rendering it down into tallow is nothing new.

Ramsey Russell: Not in my house. It’s brand new. And it’s the new thing.

Brandon Roy: Let me tell you something, we call that Texas liquid gold.

Ramsey Russell: It’s liquid gold.

Brandon Roy: And honestly, people think that you can only use tallow, to put on the brisket. I use tallow all the time. I use tallow to season my cast iron skillets.

Ramsey Russell: I want it for french fries. I’m just going to be honest with you.

Brandon Roy: It is, let me tell you something about tallow. First of all, it’s super flavorful. Secondly, it has a very high smoke point. So, like I want to say, the smoke point is, off the top of my head, 4200, something like that. That’s pretty high. You can fry whatever you want with some beef tallow and yes, french fries, whether they’re homemade or out of the bag.

Ramsey Russell: I won’t eat a french fry that ain’t homemade.

Brandon Roy: Well, beef tallow fried french fries are out of this.

Ramsey Russell: Fry them in the tallow.

Brandon Roy: In the tallow.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, boy.

Brandon Roy: Because what happens with the tallow is when you let it sit out at room temperature, it’s just like bacon grease. It’ll solidify. But once you put some heat on it, it will liquefy again.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Brandon Roy: And so when you get to temps like 3500, like that frying temp or 3250, whatever it is you like to fry at, it’s that liquid gold, baby. And you just throw your potatoes in there.

Ramsey Russell: My future coronary doctor thanks you for this piece of advice.

Brandon Roy: Hey, all these cardiologists –

Ramsey Russell: I was thinking, I was going to drip the tallow on top of my french fries.

Brandon Roy: No, you fry a minute. I mean, people in France. You’ve been to France, right?

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah.

Fat is Where Life Is

So what that means is, like, once you boil them and you mash them, you add cream, you add butter and trust me, you can add as much fat as you want and they will absorb it.

Brandon Roy: Duck fat fries. French fries. Hello. I mean, is there anything better?

Ramsey Russell: Nothing.

Brandon Roy: Well, so all these cardiologists, they’ll tell you, oh, you’ve got to stay away from all that, Ramsey. Your heart’s going to pay for it. And all this stuff, I guarantee you, they eat tallow fried french fries. Now, they may not eat them every day, but I promise you, they indulge whenever they need to indulge.

Ramsey Russell: Fat is where the flavor is. Fat is where life is. I like the fat. When I was a kid, I trimmed the fat off my steak and now I kind of push it around a plate. Sometimes I take it with a bite of beef, but it’s kind of my choice bite and I metered it along. I want that crispy fat off that steak. That’s my favorite bite of the whole plate. That’s the thing about that bone in fillet. I’ve never had a fillet that had that much fat. It was just unbelievable.

Brandon Roy: I left a little bit of fat on it just for you. I could have easily trimmed it off, but I choose to leave it on because I didn’t know, if a Mississippi boy like yourself had had a bone in filet before. So I wanted to make sure that you could experience the whole thing.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, I did.

Brandon Roy: Let’s talk about those potatoes, though.

Ramsey Russell: Well, velvet potatoes. B Roy’s velvet potatoes. Let’s talk about those. My wife makes mean mashed potatoes, baby. I’m going to tell you, she is a mashed potato expert and I kind of pride myself on the instant thing. I like a certain thing, but I eat B Roy’s velvet potatoes tonight. Let’s talk about those potatoes.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I mean look –

Ramsey Russell: Never in 30 years of marriage has my wife reached on my plate and taken what I didn’t eat and put it on her own and ate it. And as she did tonight, that’s the highest compliment.

Brandon Roy: Wow. I’m very flattered. So these potatoes, nothing too fancy. Basically, all the French chefs will be like, oh, God. All he’s talking about is potato puree, which is basically what it was. It’s just a refined mashed potato. So, to me, the best potato to make mashed potatoes with is Yukon gold potatoes. They are very neutral in flavor, they’re neutral in starch. But what they do incredibly well is they take on fat so well. So what that means is, like, once you boil them and you mash them, you add cream, you add butter and trust me, you can add as much fat as you want and they will absorb it.

Ramsey Russell: More is better.

Brandon Roy: More is better. But we’re not eating velvet potatoes every night. So like, on a special occasion with a special steak, it’s okay to have a side of velvet potatoes. And so that was pretty much it. I seasoned them with some salt, some pepper. I’m trying to remember. I may have thrown something else in there, but it wasn’t like anything too flashy because I really wanted the potatoes and the texture of the potatoes to shine because the texture is what I was going for. It’s like that mouthfeel, that velvety mouthfeel. And that’s why I call them the velvet potatoes. And so, you have a really nice cut of beef, you have a nice starch, nice potato. Alongside that, you have you a salad or something green and a really nice glass of red wine.

Ramsey Russell: That was good wine.

Brandon Roy: To me, that is the perfect meal. I mean, I again, it’s not something I’m going to eat every night, but when I do choose to eat red meat, I want a really good cut of steak, I want a starch, I want a green and I want a glass of wine. And it’s pretty simple.

Ramsey Russell: Your Instagram account. b.roys. r-o-y-s.bbq.

Brandon Roy: Underscore bbq.

Ramsey Russell: Underscore bbq.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: When did you get into the Instagram game? How’d that start? You told me the story when we got here.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. So honestly, I’ve been cooking most of my life.

Ramsey Russell: This ain’t a career choice. You got a real job. This is a passion project.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, totally. This is my passion. I love to cook. I love to entertain. I just, I think that, like I said earlier in the interview, food brings people together, food creates community. And it’s just something that, I’m a people person. I thank you, I’m a people person. I love people, I love interacting with people, I love meeting new people and that’s just what I like to do. And so back during COVID, I want to say it was 2020. We were on like a little mini vacation, me and the kids and my wife and, I mean, we didn’t go anywhere far. We were, like, in San Antonio or something. We had to go out and find a place that was actually open because it was summer of 2020. And so we’re down there and we’re sitting around the table. I think we had actually gone and picked up some pizzas for dinner. We’re sitting around the table and the kids are like, dad, you should put your food on Instagram. And I was like, no, why the hell would I do that? No, you really should. And I’m like, okay, whatever. So my daughter, who was now 16 back then, she was 13 going on 14. I said, all right, honey, you want me to put my food on Instagram? I want you to help me set up an account. Then I need your help because I have no clue what I’m doing. And so we came up with the name and then her and my older son was like, all right, you need at least 9 posts to create a page. And so I did that and I started putting a couple of cooks on there and people started reacting positively to it and I was like, hell, let’s keep this thing going. And started doing it, kept on doing it. And now it’s kind of like a, you know how it is. I mean, it’s just one of those things that you have to keep up with.

Ramsey Russell: It takes a life of its own.

Brandon Roy: It really does. And, I will say this, it’s a lot of work because keeping up with that dang algorithm is work in itself. But it also brings me to meet people like you. You know what I mean? And to be able to share our experiences. I mean, you love to cook. I love to cook. I love to duck hunt. You obviously are the man when it comes to duck hunting. And it’s just like the fact that we’re sitting here on my patio recording this is all because of Instagram.

Ramsey Russell: But to a person.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

There’s Always Room for Improvement

Whether it’s duck hunting or cooking steak it’s a good approach to life.

Ramsey Russell: To an absolute person, duck hunting, I’m going to pick that apart as somebody that goes to a lot of duck camps around the world. Beyond the ducks, the one thing all camps and houses and collections of duck hunters have in common is food, which is why, man, I’m glad to have somebody like yourself on here talking about this thing because I thought I knew how to cook a steak. I do know how to cook a steak. I didn’t know how to cook a steak your way. I like to up my game and I did deny. It was absolutely the best steak in Dallas, Texas. Several times tonight, including on this podcast, you’ve talked about a labor love. 4 or 5 hours you had in that bed of coles before you threw your meat on the grill, you wiped it down with some of that lard over and over. It’s this labor of love that goes into cooking. It’s not just cooking. It’s not just nourishment. It’s not just bringing people together. It’s like this personal thing you got going on, man. It is like your food is your labor of love. What is that? Where did that come from? From Louisiana. I mean, where did that come from, man? Why is it so important to you, Brad?

Brandon Roy: It’s a great question. I just, I love bringing smiles.

Ramsey Russell: You got a teenage kid in here.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I know.

Ramsey Russell: And he’ll eat you out. I guarantee you he’ll drink a gallon of milk every time he passes the fridge. He doesn’t care how much time you put in that steak. Now he ate every bite of it. Going to probably eat what I left over. I’m just saying, why is it important to take it to that level to you, man?

Brandon Roy: I don’t know. I just really get into it and I want to do as perfectly as possible. And the thing is, you can always get better. You can always improve. Whether that’s a life skill, whether that’s cooking a steak, whatever it is, you can always be a better person. And one of the things I learned in life is that, being around people and being around friends and family that you love, that’s irreplaceable. You cannot replace that. And so when I get that opportunity to be around people I love and to cook for people that I really like, I want to make sure that I’m putting out there my best effort.

Ramsey Russell: Good approach to life, isn’t it?

Brandon Roy: It really is.

Ramsey Russell: Whether it’s duck hunting or cooking steak it’s a good approach to life.

Brandon Roy: People say the word passion a lot, but really, I am super passionate about my food and about trying to tell a story and about trying to educate people because, I’m all about education, as you are with duck hunting conservation.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: Now, maybe my followers are more about consumption instead of conservation. And that’s okay because we’re talking about food here. But that’s what I want. I want people, like I said earlier, to get out and grill more, to barbecue, to cook more and just enjoy the time you have with friends and family because it doesn’t last forever.

Ramsey Russell: Where next, Brandon? Where do we go from here?  What’s next for Brandon in the world of BBQ?

Brandon Roy: Man, I don’t know, I mean I would love to.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, this thing started.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Your little Instagram page, your passion project, your food porn extraordinaire, I call it. I never passed by your page without stopping and looking and drooling. But what I find so interesting is it started, you a grown man, a teenager, 13, 14 years old, suggested her dad, who’s the most uncool of the uncool.

Brandon Roy: All right.

Ramsey Russell: Put something on a platform of her peers. That right there in and of itself is one of the most ultimate compliments you could ever have received from a child.

Brandon Roy: You know what’s even more funny that you said.

Ramsey Russell: Let alone one of your children.

Brandon Roy: Is that same child or young adult as I call her now. When her friends find out what her dad does as his passion project, she gets so embarrassed, like she doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.

Ramsey Russell: She got as many followers as you.

Brandon Roy: I mean, it’s funny. She can’t stop her friends from wanting to follow me. You know what I mean?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: And then when her friends are commenting on my post, that’s when she really just draws the line. And it’s pretty funny when she comes over and she’s like, oh, my God, I cannot believe that so and so is following you. And they mentioned you the other day and I’m like, whatever. So I don’t know what’s next for me.

Ramsey Russell: Just keep going.

Brandon Roy: Honest, Yeah, I mean, keep doing my thing, obviously.

Ramsey Russell: Keep it real, keep it authentic.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, that’s the thing. I mean, it’s all about authenticity. Because I found that people that really enjoy your content and that follow you, they love how authentic you are. Because if I had these individuals over to my house, like, you’re sitting next to me right now or across from me, this is the real me. I’m not putting on some show on camera. I don’t even really like being on camera. But you know what? It’s one of those things that this is what you’re going to get whether you’re looking at me on my story or you’re looking at me live in person.

Ramsey Russell: Well, thank you for the best damn steak in Dallas, Texas. Thank you for your company and your hospitality night. I promise you, my wife and I will talk about tonight for a long time and we’ve enjoyed every single bite and every single minute of it. Thank you very much.

Brandon Roy: I really appreciate you guys coming over and so appreciative of getting to meet you guys and can’t wait for what comes down the road. Hopefully we can share blind soon.

Ramsey Russell: You better bring a grill, son.

Brandon Roy: All right, well, I’ve got them.

Ramsey Russell: b.roys_bbq. Mr. Brandon Roy. You all check him out. It is absolute meat porn of epic proportion. And the man really cooks the best steak in Dallas, Texas, as a labor of his love. Thank you all for listening to this episode of Duck Season Somewhere, we’ll see you next time.

Podcast Sponsors:

GetDucks.com, your proven source for the very best waterfowl hunting adventures. Argentina, Mexico, 6 whole continents worth. For two decades, we’ve delivered real duck hunts for real duck hunters.

USHuntList.com because the next great hunt is closer than you think. Search our database of proven US and Canadian outfits. Contact them directly with confidence.

Benelli USA Shotguns. Trust is earned. By the numbers, I’ve bagged 121 waterfowl subspecies bagged on 6 continents, 20 countries, 36 US states and growing. I spend up to 225 days per year chasing ducks, geese and swans worldwide, and I don’t use shotgun for the brand name or the cool factor. Y’all know me way better than that. I’ve shot, Benelli Shotguns for over two decades. I continue shooting Benelli shotguns for their simplicity, utter reliability and superior performance. Whether hunting near home or halfway across the world, that’s the stuff that matters.

HuntProof, the premier mobile waterfowl app, is an absolute game changer. Quickly and easily attribute each hunt or scouting report to include automatic weather and pinpoint mapping; summarize waterfowl harvest by season, goose and duck species; share with friends within your network; type a hunt narrative and add photos. Migrational predictor algorithms estimate bird activity and, based on past hunt data will use weather conditions and hunt history to even suggest which blind will likely be most productive!

Inukshuk Professional Dog Food Our beloved retrievers are high-performing athletes that live to recover downed birds regardless of conditions. That’s why Char Dawg is powered by Inukshuk. With up to 720 kcals/ cup, Inukshuk Professional Dog Food is the highest-energy, highest-quality dog food available. Highly digestible, calorie-dense formulas reduce meal size and waste. Loaded with essential omega fatty acids, Inuk-nuk keeps coats shining, joints moving, noses on point. Produced in New Brunswick, Canada, using only best-of-best ingredients, Inukshuk is sold directly to consumers. I’ll feed nothing but Inukshuk. It’s like rocket fuel. The proof is in Char Dawg’s performance.

Tetra Hearing Delivers premium technology that’s specifically calibrated for the users own hearing and is comfortable, giving hunters a natural hearing experience, while still protecting their hearing. Using patent-pending Specialized Target Optimization™ (STO), the world’s first hearing technology designed optimize hearing for hunters in their specific hunting environments. TETRA gives hunters an edge and gives them their edge back. Can you hear me now?! Dang straight I can. Thanks to Tetra Hearing!

Voormi Wool-based technology is engineered to perform. Wool is nature’s miracle fiber. It’s light, wicks moisture, is inherently warm even when wet. It’s comfortable over a wide temperature gradient, naturally anti-microbial, remaining odor free. But Voormi is not your ordinary wool. It’s new breed of proprietary thermal wool takes it next level–it doesn’t itch, is surface-hardened to bead water from shaking duck dogs, and is available in your favorite earth tones and a couple unique concealment patterns. With wool-based solutions at the yarn level, Voormi eliminates the unwordly glow that’s common during low light while wearing synthetics. The high-e hoodie and base layers are personal favorites that I wear worldwide. Voormi’s growing line of innovative of performance products is authenticity with humility. It’s the practical hunting gear that we real duck hunters deserve.

Mojo Outdoors, most recognized name brand decoy number one maker of motion and spinning wing decoys in the world. More than just the best spinning wing decoys on the market, their ever growing product line includes all kinds of cool stuff. Magnetic Pick Stick, Scoot and Shoot Turkey Decoys much, much more. And don’t forget my personal favorite, yes sir, they also make the one – the only – world-famous Spoonzilla. When I pranked Terry Denman in Mexico with a “smiling mallard” nobody ever dreamed it would become the most talked about decoy of the century. I’ve used Mojo decoys worldwide, everywhere I’ve ever duck hunted from Azerbaijan to Argentina. I absolutely never leave home without one. Mojo Outdoors, forever changing the way you hunt ducks.

BOSS Shotshells copper-plated bismuth-tin alloy is the good ol’ days again. Steel shot’s come a long way in the past 30 years, but we’ll never, ever perform like good old fashioned lead. Say goodbye to all that gimmicky high recoil compensation science hype, and hello to superior performance. Know your pattern, take ethical shots, make clean kills. That is the BOSS Way. The good old days are now.

Tom Beckbe The Tom Beckbe lifestyle is timeless, harkening an American era that hunting gear lasted generations. Classic design and rugged materials withstand the elements. The Tensas Jacket is like the one my grandfather wore. Like the one I still wear. Because high-quality Tom Beckbe gear lasts. Forever. For the hunt.

Flashback Decoy by Duck Creek Decoy Works. It almost pains me to tell y’all about Duck Creek Decoy Work’s new Flashback Decoy because in  the words of Flashback Decoy inventor Tyler Baskfield, duck hunting gear really is “an arms race.” At my Mississippi camp, his flashback decoy has been a top-secret weapon among my personal bag of tricks. It behaves exactly like a feeding mallard, making slick-as-glass water roil to life. And now that my secret’s out I’ll tell y’all something else: I’ve got 3 of them.

Ducks Unlimited takes a continental, landscape approach to wetland conservation. Since 1937, DU has conserved almost 15 million acres of waterfowl habitat across North America. While DU works in all 50 states, the organization focuses its efforts and resources on the habitats most beneficial to waterfowl.

It really is Duck Season Somewhere for 365 days. Ramsey Russell’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast is available anywhere you listen to podcasts. Please subscribe, rate and review Duck Season Somewhere podcast. Share your favorite episodes with friends. Business inquiries or comments contact Ramsey Russell at ramsey@getducks.com. And be sure to check out our new GetDucks Shop.  Connect with Ramsey Russell as he chases waterfowl hunting experiences worldwide year-round: Insta @ramseyrussellgetducks, YouTube @DuckSeasonSomewherePodcast,  Facebook @GetDucks